Presenter: Courtney Adler
Faculty Mentor: Helen Neville, Jimena Santillan
Presentation Type: Poster 44
Primary Research Area: Science
Major: Psychology, Biology
Selective attention is a foundational skill that is important for academic readiness and success. Past research indicates that children from low socioeconomic status (SES) families exhibit deficits in a neural index of selective attention relative to their high SES peers, which is consistent with the academic achievement gap seen between low and high SES children. Selective attention exhibits neuroplasticity and can be enhanced or decreased by the surrounding environment. One of the most prominent factors children are exposed to early on is the quality of parenting they receive. Previous research has shown that parenting quality predicts behavioral measures of many cognitive abilities related to academic success. This study examined whether the quality of parenting shapes neural indices of selective attention in children from low SES families. To measure parenting quality, four parenting behaviors (affection, responsiveness, encouragement, & teaching) were coded from videos of mother-child interactions during a free play task. To assess brain function for selective attention, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during an auditory task in which children were simultaneously presented with two different children’s stories and were instructed to attend to one story while ignoring the other. We hypothesized that higher parenting quality would predict enhanced brain function for selective attention. Results will be discussed.